Wednesday,February 27

Three Frame of Story

Today on February 27, in our concept development class we were divided to eight group of three. Then our teacher Jimmy told us to make three frames sketches on separate piece of paper that could make a story. We had certain amount of time to do that, but I don’t remember how much time we had. After finishing them we put them on a wall to look and vote. We had to decide which one had interesting story and could perfectly visually communicate. The one that I chose won the game, but after listening Jimmy’s explanation about the best story teller, I change my mind. The one that I chose communicate visually but didn’t have interesting story. Anyway, this exercise beside fun gave me a lesson. It helps me to understand how to communicate visually without using any word. I can show the feeling or action by the face impression. That was a little exercise to understand how to make a successful poster or magazine advertisement without using any word. I learned that it is important to know what action or moment I have to choose to tell the story; only the important part of the story tells everything. There could be a long story that could be described by just three frames.

The next thing that we did was to look at a video that was an example of our final project for our concept development class. We had to make a video of 2 to 3 minute about global saving. We have to have a research and we have to  define the massage.

Monday, February 25

Creative Briefs

On Monday, February 25, we started our concept development class by playing a very funny game. Our teacher Jimmy asked us to set like a circle, and then he describes the game that we had to play. That game was very complicate to be explained but basically we had to pass thru the conversation and listen carefully to the person next to us. I enjoyed that game and I had really fun playing it. We had to pass the word by different tone. For example, if it was a question we have to make it like a question by our voice and the way that we said. The word went back and fort between the students with different tone. That was a fun game, but behind that game was an important lesson that a designer should pay attention to their clients and make sure that he or she gets the right point. He or she has to ask the massage and goal many times and define them by their words to the client to make sure that they understand their clients. Also, the tone and the voice are important. You might say the same word by different tone that could change the meaning of the word.

The next thing that we did was talking about the creative briefs. Jimmy showed us many different ways of doing that, but the idea was similar just the way of explaining and defining was different. That was really new thing that I learned about; I haven’t seen creative brief before, and I had no idea what they are used for. Jimmy mentioned that writing the main thing of the project is a good way of understanding it and by showing it to the client you make sure that you get the client’s points and ideas. Furthermore, it is a contract that could save the designer from future complains.

Wednesday, February 20

My Game Concept

On Wednesday, February 20 in concept development class we had the rest of our class presentations and critics. As class presented their games concepts we learned more and more about how to preset our works and how contact with audiences. I was really nerves that day because I knew that I had to go to present my game concept. I always get nerves when it is time to speak or talk, and the most difficult part of my nervousness is to talk English. English is my third language and I have been in the USA almost five years, so learning and talking English is very hard for me. I relaxed myself and decided to go to do my presentation. I tried to be seen that I am relax and comfortable. I did my presentation and I noticed my mistakes.

First mistake was about my elements that I had on my board. I had a drawing of little princess on my board who pointed to the story of the games. My teacher jimmy said that she is really distracting things. I had thought so when I had been working on my board, but then I wanted my little cute princess be on the board because she was cute and could get the children’s attention to the game. The second problem was my path on the game board; it wasn’t visible enough.  The third problem was my language. As I said, in some places I messed up with words that I wanted to use. I forgot what I wanted to say, so I confused my audiences. Language difficulty is the biggest problem that I have in my classes. It makes me upset and uncomfortable; I can’t say what I want and what I think. Anyway, I really enjoyed this week of classes because I learned so many thing about presentation and attitude while presentation.

Monday, February 18

Today on February 18 we started our concept development class with sitting in order of our height. This was another group activity that we have to solve them as a group work. However, this time we messed up because we had few people that set on wrong sets include myself. I felt really bad because we have always solved those small problems easily without any mistakes. This was a good example for me to not to think that a problem is really easy and I can do that very fast and easily. However, I have to pay attention to the details of each problem and give myself an amount of time to solve. In this problem, we asked the height of each other, but we didn’t actually look closely and see if our heights are in order or not.

The next thing that we did was presenting our game concepts to the class, and we had critic. It was really interesting to see what other people think and what kind of games could be made. We didn’t only look at the games concept itself, but also how the person presented and explained the games to the class. I learned lot about how to present and talk to audiences. For example, tone and speed of talking are very important elements of speech. Another was not argue with audiences and not use some words such as “em” or “as I said” while presenting or answering to audiences questions, by using a phrase like “as I said” we kind of giving the massages that you are fool and you don’t understand what I said.  The really interesting fact that jimmy mentioned was that one wrong word could stay in people’s memories and they never goanna forget the word that you said many years ago. All student didn’t have the chance to present their games include myself, so we decided to continue the rest next time.

Wednesday, February 13

Game Concept

Game concept was our topic on Wednesday, February 13 in concept development class. Our homework for that day was to bring nine different original game concepts to the class with titles and some sketches. Therefore we gather all together and started to show and talked about our games concept one by one. I haven’t pay attention to the concept of each game until that day. We all participate in the discussion about which game concept and idea is better that other and why. All of us have different ideas and stories. Some made board games, some card, and etc. again I felt the same felling, that I had had while I was playing game on Monday, when my class mates were talking and explaining their games. Some games seem to have so much fun and in some games you have to concentrate and focus on what you do.

When I had been thinking about my games to make I asked many different questions to myself. For example, what would my game made up? Why I am making this game and what age would be my audiences? What is the story of my game?  How players would play this game? And so on. These and many other questions came to my mind that could help me to come up with different game concepts and I tried not to repeat the same concept over and over again. I came up with these questions because I had felt differently when I was playing different games on Monday. One thing got my attention that our teacher Jimmy said that you have to ask yourself why this game and the concept are better that the others and why your client has to take your idea and not others. He added that we always have to be critical and not use our personal thoughts and emotion feelings when we are explaining the reasons to our clients. This fact helps me to pay attention to my designs and always make sure to have good reasons for  anything that I do in my design to earn my clients trust and confidence.

 

Monday, February 11

Feelings of Playing Games

On Monday, February 11, on my concept development class I played some games and I experienced different feelings of each games. I have played many different games when I was a child, but since I was a teenager I haven’t played any board games. I experienced many different feelings, such as happiness, stress, worries, board and fun on Monday by playing those different games. I have never paid attention to those feelings that I felt while I was playing board games. However, on Monday, when our teacher Jimmy told us to pay attention to our feelings, I realized that not all games have the same effect on players. I had so much fun playing one game, but  I was so board playing the other that I didn’t finish it either. Also, how to play and how to when are different in each game. For example, I played one games that winning was based on luck because we had to roll toss; on the other hand, the other game that I played, we had to think and used our brain to win.

By experiencing those different feeling while I was playing games, I realized that a game designer has to experience those feeling and think about the game that he or she wants to make. They should pay attention to those feelings that each player will have. Do they want their players have fun or do they want them to use their brain and figure out what to do? Also the age of players is important part. For example, when I played one game I got really board because that game was made for little children. Therefore, game designers should pay attention the age of their players. Over all that day besides having lot of fun, I experience new feelings, and I learned new things about games.

Culture, History and Elements in Design

Culture, History and Elements in Design

            The job of each designer is to communicate visually with audiences by transferring their thoughts and ideas through some pictures, drawings, graphs, logos and designs. Visual communication is very interesting, but is very tough because one wrong decision and using a wrong element could change the massage of the design. The massage that each design and logo gives to the viewers should be clear and understandable. Graphic design is being used in almost all type of businesses and companies to introduce themselves and their products. Each designer should pay attention to many different aspect and details, such as culture, history and elements before they start designing something, and while they are doing it.

            Culture and communities are one of the most important elements in the design field. Each designer should know and learn the culture of that country that he or she wants to make a design for them. For example, according to Sunook Parks a designer, there are huge differences of thoughts, life and beliefs between cultures. Korean’s beliefs, thoughts, ideas, and activities are totally different than the USA’s people. For example, Korean people believe that they have to work together and be part of a group, but Americans like to be individual and separate. Therefore, designers should study and know the culture of the people that they have to work with them. A design that can work and well communicate with people in the one country or culture might not be useful in other ones.

            The other important information that designers should know and explore is the history of the brand. Research is very important part of designing; designers should know where the core of the company and factory came from, then where they are and the last thing where they are going to. Present connect the past and the future and the direction of each company. Designers should get so close to the brand and company that they have to feel them, see them, and hear them to make a very successful logo, design or advertising. For example for designing a “Timberland” shoe logo designers have to know that those shoes are for hiking and they should be strong, but comfortable, so they have to describe those adjectives that matches the brand to the logo and advertises. Obviously the logo that designers make for the Timberland shoes would be totally different that a logo of the bakery, because the bakery gives the soft, sweet, and delicious feeling to the audiences. Therefore the feeling and connection between the audiences to the brand is very important. Designers can also look back and find out the history of the design that each brand had before, so they can realize what kind of ideas and theory worked and didn’t work in the past and why. They can work on the ideas of past to develop and make them to work and communicate better because society likes to see changes and new things every year or every few years. According to Sunook Parks, each company has core, emotion and signature that when people see a signature of the band they go back to the core. A brand is a life form which resembles the owner and shows the relationship of the brand with customers. Confusion of what to make or design could happen to designers when they don’t know and didn’t understand their clients. Therefore, designers have to write about their clients before drawing something.

            The other important things in design are the elements, such as colors, patterns, fonts and icons. Many brands are being recognized just by their colors or font styles. Colors could attract the eyes and get the viewers’ attention or change their mood and feelings. The choosing of color could change the massage of the brand and could also change the company’s chance of success. The color that designers choose for a brand logo it has to show the emotion and feeling of the brand. Furthermore, font is one of the powerful elements of the design that can introduce the brand and show the mood and feeling of the brand and the viewer make their decisions about the product of the brand based on the font that they choose. Logo is the symbols of the brand that could introduce the brand and gives much information about the band and their products to audiences. The logo is like a signature of the brand that could visually communicate with people about the quality and style of the products that each brand has.

            In conclusion, targets of all companies are to get the attention of the people and introduce themselves and their products to them. The successful companies are the companies that have a successful design group that could make an effective and powerful design of the logo and advertising. To make an attractive and influential logo and advertising designers need to know about the culture of the people who they will work with them because each culture and country have their own believes, attitudes and ideas that could be different than others. the history of the brand has huge influence on the logos and products that designers job is to research about them before starting to draw something because without knowing your clients perfectly they will be a confusion of what will work or what won’t. The other thing that is valuable in each design of the bard is the elements that are used in a design. The color and font that are used in a design or a logo for the companies have huge influence on the viewers and customers and they can change the customers and viewers moods and feelings. Furthermore, logo which is the signature of the brand presents the companies quality and products differently. These all aspects and many other things have to get together to have a successful design and logo for a company and keep the company on attention of audiences.

Seven Deadly Sins and Concept Maps

Seven Deadly Sins and Concept Maps

On Wednesday February 6, in concept development class we put our seven deadly sins designs on the tables to show to our classmates. That was very interesting activity because each of us had different ideas and style to show those seven sins. For example, some made them scary, some had funny images, some used symbols and some were abstract. Each of them communicates those seven sins with the audiences and viewers. After looking at them, we had a discussion about how we can judge to the best design. We came up with different aspects, such as color, composition, symbol, funny and etc. the last and the most important one was the ideas and communication. Our teacher; Jimmy explained that the communication is the most important thing in a design and I agree with him. A design could be very well organized, colored, drawn, and symbolized, but not communicate with audiences. Therefore, designer should think about communication before drawing or designing.

The second part of the class, we learn about the concept map, and why we do and how to do them. It was very interesting topic, and it gave me very interesting information about our mind reaction to design, creation and ideas. One slide of the concept map lecture got my attention because it mentioned the same problem that I have when I want to start a project. I have so many ideas in my mind that I get confused and lost in them, so I usually try to change my mind to other topics and not to think about that until night. In my bed when no body and nothing distract me I can focus my mind on project and get the solution for it.  The concept map idea helps me to understand that we have to write our ideas on the paper and develop them step by step. It is like a brain storming, but in design style. At the end of the class, we practice one of those concept map exercises which were enjoyable and challengingly.

Designer of 2015, Competencies

Monday February 5

 

At the beginning of the concept development class on Monday February 5, we had been separated to four groups to talk about designers of 2015 and their competencies’.  In my group, we started to read each 13 competencies and found out what their meanings were. Some of them were easy to understand, but some were really complicated that each of us shared his or her opinion or thoughts to help each other to understand the meaning of them. After that, we started to discuss about how we learn those 13 competencies in our classes and outside of our schools. I didn’t pay attention seriously to that part, but when our teacher Jimmy mentioned that how we learn in class or what we have done that helps us to learn these skills, I started to think about that question deeply. Then I realized that each time our teachers ask us to use some materials and do some kind of activities or projects, we learn many things that help us to develop our skills. Also, I realized that even non major classes help us to understand and learn some of those competencies. For example, one of the competencies was “ability to work in a global environment with understanding of cultural preservation.” So I found out that my learning from my cultural communication class could help me in my career in future.  I have always thought that why I have to learn those non major subjects and that day, I found out the answer of my question.

After that discussion we watched a documentary film called “Freedom on the fence” which was about Polish posters in World War II. The documentary film showed very interesting posters from those days and some artists’ interviews. They explained their art works and the influence of their works to communism. That film gave me some new information from the art and its history. There were many interesting art works that got my attention. One of them was the picture of a man who had a robe around his neck, inside his eyes ears and mouth. This poster was called “police” and my understanding from that poster was that police did very scary and painful things to criminals or maybe to public and they were cruel people on that period of time.